Anti-Slavery Books, Pamphlets, & Newspapers

A Brief History of the Anti-Slavery Collection

Founded in 1833, Oberlin's early supporters, students, and settlers actively
pursued the Christian ideals of men like Charles Grandison Finney and
William Lloyd Garrison. Oberlin College was the first co-educational institution
in the United States, as well as the most influential of the early institutions
that admitted African-Americans. The town was major stop on the Underground
Railroad. Oberlin College has, and continues to embrace many social and
political causes, and the foremost among these was the crusade to end
slavery in the United States.

During the years 1838-1840, travelers to England made
appeals to British anti-slavery sentiment and collected books for the
school's fledgling library. Their trip was marvelously successful, and
among the 2000 or so volumes they brought back with them were several
British books arguing against slavery representing the oldest portion
of our collection.

When the Spear Library building opened in 1885, the librarian,
Rev. Henry Matson, recognizing the role which Oberlin had played in the
abolitionist struggle, made an appeal to local residents for anti-slavery
literature.

It is proposed to make in the college library an anti-slavery
collection, complete as possible, for the future historian, in which shall
be gathered every book, every pamphlet, every report, every tract, every
newspaper, and every private letter on the subject. For such a collection
nothing is unimportant. Scattered here and there these documents are all
but worthless, but gathered in one collection they would be priceless.
(Oberlin Weekly News, Feb. 29, 1884)

Among the generous contributions made at this time was the
original draft of the Anti-Slavery Declaration of 1833 in the handwriting
of William Lloyd Garrison. In 1931/32 Geraldine Hopkins Hubbard compiled
a catalog of the Anti-Slavery Collection of which published copies and
later appendices are available in Special Collections. In 1968, the Lost
Cause Press in Louisville, Kentucky, realizing the national importance
of Oberlin's holdings, made the entire collection available in a microcard
edition, which is also available for use in the Oberlin College Library.
The set is now on microfiche cards available from Primary Source Media.

Scope of the Collection

The Anti-Slavery Collection now consists of around 2500 or more items,
most of which have been cataloged and so can be searched using the online
catalog. In the collection you will find:

Anti-slavery societies' documents: annual reports,
addresses, and publications. Books, pamphlets, and other documents outlining
the moral, religious, economic, and legal aspects of the slavery debate. Travelers' observations of slavery. Slave narratives - autobiographical, biographical,
and fictional. Biographies of leaders of the anti-slavery movement.
Children's literature. Poetry, songs, anthologies, and gift books. Newspapers and periodicals, including The Abolitionist,
The American Anti-Slavery Reporter, The Emancipator and Republican,
The Gerrit Smith Banner, The Liberator, Liberty, and many others. Political works, including documents related to
the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law, the Kansas-Nebraska
Controversy; party propaganda; and speeches made in and out of Congress. Some pro-slavery literature. Ephemera, including bills of sale for slaves, manumission
papers, slave shackles, etc.

Gravestone of Lee Howard Dobbins

One of the most compelling artifacts in Special Collections is a gravestone
of a four year old escaped slave. In March of 1853, a slave woman named
Miriam arrived in Oberlin from Kentucky, with her entire family—her
children and grandchildren and a sickly four-year-old foster child named
Lee Howard Dobbins. Miriam had fled her master in a desperate attempt
to save her daughters, whom she had learned were going to be sold.

By the time they arrived in Oberlin,
little Lee Howard was extremely ill. Miriam and the rest of her family
couldn't afford to wait for his convalescence — since she and her
family were the only slaves their master owned, he was no doubt in hot
and angry pursuit. A family in Oberlin promised to care for the child,
and Miriam and her children were safely delivered to Canada, where her
brother was awaiting them.

Lee Howard Dobbins died of consumption
a week later. The whole town mourned his death - a thousand people
were reportedly crammed into First Church for his funeral, where all grieved
not only the loss of this child, but the horrors of slavery. The collection
at the funeral was used to buy this gravestone for him.

The stone has weathered badly, and so
it was put in the Oberlin College Library Special Collections for safekeeping
in 1938. The Inscription reads:

Let slavery perish!LEE HOWARD DOBBINS
a fugitive Slave orphan.
brought here by an
adopted mother in her
flight for liberty
MAR. 17, 1853
left here wasted with
consumption, found
a refuge in death
MAR. 26, 1853
Aged 4 Years

Related Material in the Oberlin College Archive

Among the rather extensive mid-nineteenth century documents held by the
Oberlin College Archives
are papers relating to the anti-slavery movement and Black education.
These documents are of both an institutional and a non-institutional nature.